diecast 24 hours of lemons

Johnny Lightning is making Diecast LeMons Racers

Jeff Glucker

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Having your own vehicle turned into a diecast or scale version sounds pretty amazing. Take Riley Stair’s insane Firebird that recently became a treasured Hot Wheels collectible. Now another set of “legendary” machines are set to become immortalized in a small scale. Somehow, the boffins at the 24 Hours of LeMons headquarters have convinced 1/64-scale builder Johnny Lightning to produce a run of LeMons race car diecasts. And yes, they’re as awesome as you think they are.

diecast 24 hours of lemonsdiecast 24 hours of lemons

This Winter at your local Walmart, Target, Meijer, and more, you’ll be able to snag some Johnny Lightning LeMons cars. These live in the brand’s Streat Freaks series. The first model up? A Honda Civic with a half Cheetah print from Stain Your Lane racing.

diecast 24 hours of lemons

The attention to detail on this example looks excellent in the photos. And only makes us want to see more LeMons Street Freaks on that one corner shelf in a given grocery store, where you always stop and have to browse to see what’s on the racks.

diecast 24 hours of lemons

Other cars we’d like to see smallified?

  • EyeSore’s Miata
  • The ZomBee MGB
  • The Chotus
  • The Shark BMW 5-Series
  • Anything from Speedycop
  • The Faster Farms Belvedere
  • Spank’s Mini Moke (in Lunar Rover trim)
  • Any of the VW Vans that race
  • The Titanic Town Car
  • The Model T GT
  • Metro Gnome
  • The Porcubimmer/Prickstine/The Homer
diecast 24 hours of lemons

There are so many more great ones out there too, of course. And no I didn’t include the Ranchero or the Uberbird since you can safely assume of course I want those made too! I have to assume some LeMons cars will be tough due to too-close licensing issues relative to actual cars, but hopefully Johnny Lightning keeps cranking these out. My goal is a desk overflowing with small versions of truly wonderful shitty cars.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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11 responses to “Johnny Lightning is making Diecast LeMons Racers”

  1. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    Does Stain Your Lane actually have a series of paint jobs, or are those other flavors in the lede photo just artist’s conceptions?

    Either way, this particular car is essentially paint mods to a car Johnny Lightning already tooled up–a 98 Civic–so it was easy for them to do. I think tooling would be too expensive for a diecast of anything that sprung from the imagination of Speedycop (with a few exceptions like the Donk), and for something like Prickstine/The Homer, there would be additional licensing fees to Steven King or The Simpsons, et. al.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      Man, that BMW was always so well done… I hope they find time to race it again down the road. (LTDScott’s BMW, specifically)

      Reply
    2. Matt Avatar
      Matt

      No, we’ve only ever had the purple livery on our car. Johnny Lightning always has a version A color scheme and version B scheme so the pink is just an alternate color. The white is for their White Lightning, which are super rare, similar to Hot Wheels treasure hunt cars.

      Reply
    3. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Yeah, unfortunately – don’t expect anything too crazy, but here’s hoping.

      I think some of the crazier stuff could be made work in low volumes as resin models, which JL doesn’t do, but I think American collectors wouldn’t go for that. Americans tend to like a weighty, all metal car like JL/Greenlight/Auto World, and the price point would be higher. e.g. Neo Scale models did some absolutely lovely low volume 1/64 cars of 500 pieces each for €30 or about 40 dollars, not everyone’s willing to pay that. I’d pay it provided the cars were true-scale 1/64 (unlike JL which are Hot Wheels style fit-in-the-box) and nicely detailed.

      Maybe parent company Round2 could be persuaded to do it? (they do things like plastic model kits)

      Reply
  2. smokyburnout Avatar
    smokyburnout

    I did a miniature of one incarnation of the Eyesore Miata a few years back
    https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:498806

    Reply
  3. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    The ZomBee wouldn’t be that difficult for them, as long as nobody objects to using a chrome-bumper MGB as the stunt double:

    http://www.jlcollector.net/091.html

    Reply
    1. OA5599 Avatar
      OA5599

      They would have to design new packaging to orient the car vertically instead of horizontally, though.

      Besides, wouldn’t you rather have the Lego version?

      Reply
      1. OA5599 Avatar
        OA5599

        The picture upload didn’t work. Here’s the source: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/de420502-ca6e-4cfe-87de-c6cb3571aa5e

        Reply
  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    What a brilliant way for HotWheels to get rid of models that didn’t pass quality control!

    Reply
  5. mark bycraft Avatar
    mark bycraft

    Very cool. Can you produce wings etc? or is this basicly paint scheme on existing body.

    Reply
  6. Douglas Ogrin Avatar
    Douglas Ogrin

    The Mostly Harmless Ghia.
    It’s a Ghia
    IOE winner
    Douglas Adams
    Should be enough for a miniature version.

    Reply